But there are still many unanswered questions about the proposed theory, such as how is the information stored in soft hair or how it leaves an evaporating black hole.

Professor Perry said: “If I throw something in, is all of the information about what it is stored on the black hole’s horizon?

“If it’s only half of it, or 99 per cent, that is not enough, you have not solved the information paradox problem.”

Professor Hawking’s final research and book, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, will be published globally on October 16.

The book, which the scientist was working on at the time of his death, sets out to answer fundamental questions about the nature of the cosmos.

Questions such as: Can we predict the future? Is there a God? Will artificial intelligence outsmart humans one day?

Lucy Hawking, on behalf of the Hawking Estate, said: “Communication was so important to our father in his lifetime and we see this book as an integral part of his legacy, bringing his scientific writing and his social commentary together into one beautiful edition, laced with a dose of his trademark dry humour.”

Express.co.uk will attend a pre-publication press launch of the book on Monday, October 15.